Francis Ngannou is no longer a fighter in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), the biggest MMA league in the world.
In bickering for months with the organization, the former Parisian homeless man successfully operated on his knee in 2022 was released from his contract on January 14, 2023. Dana White the big boss of the UFC gave him back his freedom, a virtue to which Francis Ngannou is viscerally attached.
The cause of the rupture is primarily financial: “We negotiated with Francis for more than two years.
We offered him a contract that would have made him the highest paid heavyweight in the organization's history.
He refused.
He can go where he wants and do what he wants,” said White.
He turned down an offer of three million dollars
What did Francis Ngannou refuse to continue to be the head of the organization?
We are talking about a sum of 3M$ (2.8M€) for three fights to come.
For the million-rich UFC, that's a sum.
The last time he stepped into the cage a year ago against Ciryl Gane for the victorious defense of his world heavyweight belt, the former migrant with an incredible destiny had received a purse of $600,000 (560,000 €) against $500,000 (€460,000) to the MMA Factory fighter in Paris.
It's a lot but little compared to what is practiced elsewhere.
For each of his fights, the biggest star of MMA, the Irishman Conor McGregor receives more than 2M$.
And too bad if his outings look more and more like wrestling fights than MMA.
At 36, Ngannou can now knock on all doors and everyone will open to him.
Every UFC competing MMA franchise is ready to roll out the red carpet for him.
But he is not sure that he will follow up because he has always had a secret.
Beyond the money, he wants to be a boxer.
Ngannou came to MMA on a miserable night in Paris by default.
If he crossed the Mediterranean in a canoe, it was to become a boxing world champion.
Only, he was told that his rise would be faster in Mixed Martial Arts.
That's what happened but he never gave up his dream: “Boxing is something I have to do before the end of my career” he often told us.
It's time for him to take action.
“Boxing is something I have to do”
A great friend of Mike Tyson who already advises him, Ngannou wants to challenge the greatest.
Tyson Fury the best heavyweight boxer in the world is waiting for him once he fights the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk in 2023. This duel will bring a fortune to the two fighters and the promoter who will bring them together.
In 2017 for a similar fight, McGregor ($80M!) and Floyd Mayweather ($210M) hit this jackpot.
Will this clash of the titans happen?
Most likely.
Everyone wants it but not right away.
Even if he has the strength of an ox (“with his fists, he is the man on this earth who hits the hardest” admits Taylor Lapilus of the MMA Factory), Ngannou is not a boxer.
The noble art can be learned.
You don't go from MMA to English boxing by your own will or risk taking a big beating: "Ngannou, wants to box Fury?
I do not advise him to do it now, explained to the "Parisian" the former world champion Jean-Marc Mormeck.
If he wants to switch to boxing, why not.
But he must first show us what he is capable of.
Before Fury, he has to box against a guy around the top 20 in the world.
Fury is way too high to begin with.
Boxing deserves respect.
You have to acquire all the specific techniques that an MMA fighter does not have.
The strikes, the gestures, the tricks to dodge are not the same.
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Bertrand Amoussou, the director of the international federation of MMA was of the same opinion: “The movement of the legs is different.
Francis has the punching power, but in front, the real boxers have the technique not to get hit.
It takes 15 years to make a world heavyweight boxing champion.
Francis Ngannou no longer has 15 years ahead of him to become one.